Antica’s eyes…evaluating, stared around; the ignited sigil engraved…dimming, standing down.

It was over.

Standing herself up from that rock behind which she had been so entrenched, she quickly checked her modular small-arm’s screen, inspecting…

Hmm… She still had quite the charge capacity left. Truly, so absurd Remnant bolt canister-charges were with respect to smart-projectile magazines in spite of their evident impracticalities and…weight. The exotic bolts had ripped through them, literally.

Scattered and splattered about were the cyanic torn corpses of that tide which had so attempted to storm out. So many, indeed… She would have to check Bee’s targeting assessment to confirm an exact number, but it seemed to be clearly over a hundred. And since she had begun firing well-before this tide had actually exited through the cavern entrance, the corpses scattered outside were probably…not even all of them.

Stepping forth, she began to inspect around… What were these things? She was curious.

Rather small creatures, indeed, though there was considerable size variety; rather mobile too, though clearly not meant to move about terrestrially. Such only begged the question as to why these things were trying to bust out from the environment for which they were obviously most suited into one they were not.

Most likely, considering they were chimeras, their added sensitivity to such...exotic presences could have attracted them to either her presence or…that of a certain something chewing away behind her.

Nevertheless, they were all now mere bits and pieces of flesh, blood, and cyanic glowing goop and sparkle-dusty residuals. Their smaller size and mass had made her cyanic bolts especially destructive, seemingly; it was rather difficult to find an intact specimen for…analysis, in fact.

Hmm… Though, she found one corpse; one which had unfortunately been…dispatched by a headshot, its head being very much absent. However, the rest of its body was largely intact; she could draw inferences…

She kneeled down, evaluating… It had a tail and was furry. It had a patagium membrane of sorts which extended from arm to leg—gliders, evidently. Though, its claws were…thick, sharp, and exceptionally sized… Hmm… She inspected the feet of this thing… Very similar to its hands, though had…different sort of claws.

Against better protocols, she began to physically inspect with her exposed fingers… She could deduce, somewhat, that their hand claws were likely designed for…intensive digging. Indeed they appeared almost…‘shovel-like’ underneath. Likewise, she could see that the claws of its grasping-feet were…not necessarily meant for digging as much as…more…piercing and locking in place, probably to latch onto…surfaces such as walls or ceilings and such.

Burrowers too, then?

Antica sighed… Truly, despite her observations, she really did not know…what to think. This was…not her domain. Would that she had access to Remnant records… Evaluating such chimeras was so difficult in absence of any references to compare with.

She stood up, looking around. Well, one thing was certain even to her, they seemed to be somewhat primate-like… Though, now she needed to evaluate a head; thankfully, the majority of the corpses still had their heads, so such was not a difficult endeavor.

Finding a headed specimen, she inspected immediately… Hmm… Again, she had no idea what to be thinking, but…

Indeed, again, primate-esque yet… Its facial structure… That type of nose and snout… Those protruding ears…

There was a type of mammalian species, she began to recall, one that…inhabited caverns… A flying species, if she remembered correctly, the only true mammalians capable of flight…

Time’s decay had primarily devoured her episodic memories than technical knowledges, thus she was able to make such inferential observations despite…not necessarily knowing how she knew what she knew about such animals. And she could deduce that…such was what these things were: a chimerification of a primate and…those cave-inhabiting flying mammalians.

« …‹ veșpertilion ›? Estne quid vocetùr? » she abruptly blurted, a name spontaneously popping into mind… ‘Bats’, was that what they were called? « Mah… Quidquid benë síet… » Oh well, whatever.

Antica proceeded to lower her hood, just enough so that her communicator-scanner device would be completely unobstructed. She then pressed a…specific button, a cyanic dotlight blinking in reply; simultaneously, almost at once, images were taken in a myriad of different light-spectrums and modes. Pressing again, she held her finger in place which caused the device’s tip to emit thin strands of scanning cyanic ‘beams’, analyzing the very existence of this corpse.

Although she had no access to Remnant records with which to compare any of this collected data, she still wanted to add such data to her own direct records for future reference. Standing up, she repeated this scanning process with many more corpses in variable conditions in order to expand her sample.

Hmm… Antica stared around, having finished… She turned into the direction of that cavern, staring into it…

It was so quiet now, so quiet indeed… despite the clear ruckus which had been once emanating forth. Never mind that sound which had so trembled out earlier, as if the mother of all pressure-bombs had exploded deep within it… What even was that? She could only guess…

Antica sighed, and checked her terminal device… Fly, still within there, had returned to its prior position and was once again monitoring that chamber, no more interferences either… Those three cyanic-tagged denizen blips remained marked… They had won; they survived. Everything else, however, seemed to be…gone… It was hard to rejoice.

Though, environmental readings were also indicating…

« Quid nefas? » What the heck were these temperature changes? Had that chamber suddenly been exposed to a cold starless vacuum or something?

Oh, whatever… To be pondered later.

Regardless, no doubt, Novea and the other two would begin making their way out soon, thus…there was no point in continuing to monitor. She pressed her communicator.

« Fly, revení me. »

Fly now withdrawing, she then returned her eyes to the scene around… And what a messy goopy scene indeed… Her exotic bolts had been fired…suppressively, thus had impacted the forest’s ground, shrubs, and also rocks and stone straight within the cavern.

Although Antica did not care as much these days, she could infer that Novea would not be too…pleased with the visible cyanic mess she had left behind…

And then there was that slim possibility those unknowns could…spontaneously materialize on by and spot such familiar cyanic…leftovers… Indeed, that invading thought alone changed her apathy.

However, how was she was going to…

Noises.

Such eardrum shuddering…slobbery…noises.

She turned around, her ignited eyes gazing into the direction of that unicorn which she had been so ignoring…

« … » Immediately, the causes for those…sounds…she had been so tuning out became evidently clear.

The unicorn, still attached to the wagon, was so…blissfully chewing away upon…the remains of a primate-bat chimera; its saliva…mushified flesh as its teeth grinded bone… And it was not just feasting upon the corpse, but also…slurping up the exotic residual matter and cyanic goop…

« Quid nefas érrumata…? » What the actual fuck?

She watched it…consume the evidence before going straight for another one…

Wait… She noticed…

The unicorn…started with the head, targeting the brain and then grinding through the spine… Its chimeric essence was having a response as it did so, chimeric sparkle-dust glittering off its silky fur and spit, its eyes even starting to glow somewhat in that…uniform chimeric fashion...

That thing... It was also devouring the residual chimeric essence left behind… or rather not just that given the method of extraction…as much as the entire…

And something deep down within her was telling her that this ability was not exclusive to chimeric essence…

Antica shook her head, quickly snapping out of this entrapping stare, and redirected her attention back to the corpses around.

Hmm… She was starting to get an…idea. So ethically abhorrent in concept, yet…so efficiently pragmatic in practice…

Indeed, she knew how to…solve this ‘evidence’ problem of hers.

Interim

Dark. Silent. Cold.

They were now back in that central chamber. The air within was still fairly chilly, though…normalizing. Wet and melty, with some lingering drops of still-liquid air vaporizing from surfaces around… All that water moisture which had once dominated the air was now frost which stuck to everything; the ground certainly felt icer too. The…moist environment of this cave had certainly amplified the effects of that ice spell, seemingly.

Freeze-burned bodies were scattered all around. Goblins, orcs, growl-hounds, and monkey-bats alike… Nothing was resistant; nothing had been spared. That streaming cloud of blasting pressurized air was so frigid that the very sweat of the orcs and goblins, and even the blood slobbered over the monkey-bats’ fur or bleeding out from wounds, was frozen by the deathly touch. Those closest to the burst received the worst; their exposure to the initial release, when temperatures were at their absolute lowest, resulted in their flesh becoming hardly frost-burned meat as much as frozen rock.

Likewise, the pressurized conditions and absolute frigid temperature of that composite of gases and moisture had resulted in the formation of solid water-icy crystalline compounds which blasted alongside the streaming cloud; such certainly had made the already unpleasant even more unpleasant.

“…sorry about the polearm, Red…” Blue, voice lowly, apologized… Her eyes were once again ignited in that color of pure light, a light ball hovering above, granting sight in this frosted darkness.

Red was standing still, eyes staring down at his Far Eastern polearm on the ground… It was affected as much as everything else, covered in glittery freeze… The blade’s metal should be fine enough, but…the rest of it…may require extra care in handling.

Yet he simply shrugged; “Eh, it’s survived worse… Just needs some heat and maybe a smith visit” he dismissed, carefully picking it up.

Novea, lingering near, peered around… distracted.

“What a…spell…” she remarked with cold shivery breaths.

“Yeah… People often underestimate ice magic, but spells like this show that ice can burn as cruelly as fire…” Blue…replied, voice…still lowly.

Suddenly, they began to hear…such faint and groaning breaths, contorted and mangled. An actual survivor.

Red sighed and approached the source… A goblin, frozen flesh rotting. “Blue, come here and deal with this… I can’t use my naginata” he instructed, waving.

“…s-seriously?” Blue replied, tensing…

“Yeah, unless you want to hold the frozen-as-fuck polearm so I can do it” Red frankly stated.

“Fair… Fair point…” Blue replied… She approached and looked at the goblin, standing before it… breaths tensing and tensing. She gripped her staff and, with its pointed pommel… pierced its heart.

“Good. Now the rest” Red stated, eyeing…a few more apparent survivors.

“Got it…” Blue acknowledged, her voice…quite lowly.

Thus became her task… Piercing heart after heart, Blue trailed along… Even though dispatching the survivors was standard procedure, and even though she was doing them a mercy in this case… “I cannot help but feel bad for them…” thus she began to suddenly remark, voice somber…as her eyes peered around, seeing the true effects of what she had inflicted; “First my spell, and now this… to kill them while they are so defenseless… I cannot help but feel…villainous…”

“They’d have done the same thing to us if not worse, always remember that…” Red frankly replied; “They’d never show mercy to us, we shouldn’t show any to them. They want to massacre us, so we have to massacre them. That’s how it works.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Hm…” Blue…did not like that reply; “That does not make us any different than them, no?”

“Yeah. It doesn’t.” Red so bluntly replied.

As Blue and Red continued ensuring everything was, in fact, dead… Novea began to drift off, inspecting around…and looking for clues…

It was clear this coalition of orcs and goblins had been using this space as some kind of… outpost. In fact, there appeared to be actual…crudely built constructions for what…she gathered to be…supplies and logistics. They had been preparing for something here… Something larger in scope…

Novea paused, standing before the wetly frosted remains of an armored orc… She stared… That crafted heavy armor, that shield and spear, even its stature and appearance, everything about this orc was distinct and…unconventional for a race notorious for unsophisticated savagery.

“So, Bureau-bug, what are you making of this, huh?” Red suddenly inquired as he approached from behind, Blue trailing along; “You’re obviously seeing something”.

Novea sighed; “Orcs are weird… Honestly, do not know what to make of…” thus she was saying, but then…paused, her attention drifting… “Wait…” she kneeled down, evaluating…

Now that Blue was present with her light ball hovering above, more details could now be seen… There was…an insignia of sorts engraved onto its armor…as if a small pin…

Red, curious, peered down in kind… “X-eyes and flipped smile with an arrow, huh?”

“…Fallen…” Novea’s breaths slipped in realization.

“W-what… What are you two…” Blue, becoming even more drained, was confused…

Novea shook her head gently, standing herself up… “It doesn’t matter… This is clearly something big, but I did not come to Huckleberry for…this… All I can do is report this and move on… Not my priority…” she was more…telling herself than the others.

“Yeah… I don’t have the party to chase them down the tunnelway… Best I can do is tell Pebbleberry and get them to seal this cave so that these under-fucks can’t stage anything from here” Red stated in kind.

“Hmm…sealing this cave, huh?” Blue murmured, before gently caressing her special spellcard container; “I have a detonation on me, that should cave the entrance” she said.

Red…turned and eyed; “Blue, your mana…”

“I am not that mana-fatigued… I can probably cast it…” Blue replied, breaths fatigued.

“ ‘Probably’…” Red’s eyes were that of doubt. Indeed, she appeared visibly drained; she could barely stand.

“I have exerted myself far more than…this, so… I mean…” Blue was dazed, clearly.

“Sure, but remember that shaman fucker stole your own casted spells” Red replied, reminding.

“…and all of the mana involved, so no leftovers returned… I am aware…” Blue…acknowledged…

“How about we start leaving first most while she can still move, and before…anything more decides to appear” Novea suggested.

“Yeah, let’s do that…” Red replied; “Though, let’s check the cyclops’s body first, make sure nothing’s still alive inside of it…”

-||-

“Oh! Sweet harmony!” Blue, eyes now normalized, exclaimed out as the sun’s still present light glistened from the sky up high, the rays hitting her skin. Stumbling out of the cave, she immediately tumbled down and onto the ground, as if all of her exhaustion came crashing down… “I have never missed this greater than now!” she exclaimed further.

Red sighed, stepping out in kind though…not tumbling down; “Yeah, no need to be dramatic…”

Novea stepped out behind, peering around, inspecting…

Antica stood in place; her eyes closed, her modular small-arm now reset and holstered once again, and Fly—having already returned—now gently clinging to her figure beneath her cloak. Although not every corpse could be…disposed of, obviously, most of the…cyanic residuals…had been cleaned up, both outside and within the cave’s immediate entryway.

Thus, the scene was clean despite the bodies, almost…suspiciously so…

Indeed, just judging from the monkey-bat corpses and the…damage inflicted leading up to the exit, it was already clear to Novea that…there had been a fight. Antica had certainly used her magical…cyan dispenser, and Novea had clear memory of that weapon’s distinct…effects… Yet there was a conspicuous lack of cyan. Likewise, there still seemed to be less remains than she expected, considering the sheer quantity she remembered…crawling past her. Though, such was difficult to truly tell…considering much of the bodies were…bits and pieces.

She could only wonder what Antica had done this time.

Novea, exhaling, promptly went to Antica…

“Hey…” she greeted, standing before her.

“Here.” Antica immediately extended out her hand, returning that corvid whistle.

“Oh, rightly… Thanks” Novea accepted the whistle; “Speaking of a certain guy, I have to…tell him I am fine… Must be worried…” she remarked, warmth in voice as she thought of her corvid. “Anyway, what happened here?” she inquired.

“Nothing of relevance. I handled it.” Antica merely replied.

“I see that, but I was more wondering…” thus Novea began to say.

Meanwhile, Blue finally sat herself up, looking at herself… “Yuck, how I need such a bath… My attire is going to be trapped dirty and blood-stained for a while, isn’t it?” she lamented aloud, before shifting her eyes to Red; “Ever since we met, you truly have been dragging me into cave after cave… Just because we were stranded together and ended up fu—” she was speaking, though quickly…

“Blue! Your tongue, keep it in.” Red interrupted.

Blue…stared at the man whose stature had become so much more…awkward and…evidently embarrassed. She snickered; “Oh, mind me, I forgot that you are so closed about this topic…” She stood herself up, swiping at her attire.

“I don’t like where your smile is going…” Red remarked…

“Worry not! Despite my fatigue, I still have self-control” thus she said; though, she looked into him, her peering eyes becoming something more…different… “But you, specifically, owe me a good time…”

Red stared… “Seriously? That’s the main thing on your mind after we just finished that Gods’ fucked job?”

“Yep!” Blue smiled; “You know how it works, Red, I may start speaking the dirty dirt or sucking the dirty dirt, for only seeded dirt can cure—”

“Gods’ sacred, Blue…” Red interrupted again, pinching the bridge of his nose; “I get it, now please… We aren’t alone, remember that…” Red could only be lucky that Novea and violet hexagons over there were too preoccupied to notice the words being spoken and their…subtexts.

Blue only snickered with a teasing sneer.

Red promptly shifted his attention to the scene around, Blue doing the same…

“Huh…” Blue mumbled…

“Ah… So that’s what happened; guess someone can fight blind” he simply remarked, seemingly indifferent, before making way, heading straight for the wagon. The unicorn seemed to be right where it should be, at least.

Blue, naturally, trailed along; she eyed the remaining bodies scattered around… “Nasty affairs… Did she…do all of this? She hardly appears strained, either… Huh…”

“Looks like someone did her job…” Red remarked as he passed Novea and Antica by. Though, arriving at the unicorn, he froze… noticing immediately…

“Ewww…” Blue grimaced… “Is he chewing on a bone?? Yuck, do not tell me he…”

“I take it back; someone did not do her job! You were supposed to watch him!” Red so shouted.

« … » Antica…remained silent. In a technical sense, she was supervising the chimera.

“Wait… Why is his…”—Red’s eyes finally lanced straight to Antica—“Did you set him free?!”

Novea stared at Antica…rather blankly; “So, you were saying?”

Red groaningly sighed; “Can’t be bothered, whatever…”—his eyes lanced to—“Blue… Fine, if you think you can do it, cast detonation and seal the cave…”

Blue…eyed him… “Got it…” she tiredly smiled.

----------------------------------------

-||-

The wagon was in motion once again; finally, they were back on the road. The day was transitioning as the sun marched its way towards evening. Time had passed; the cave had been sealed; things had settled.

Blue, having succumbed to her so-locally-called ‘mana-fatigue’ after casting that ‘detonation’ spell, was passed out…utterly.

The rest were awake, however.

Antica and Novea were sitting next to each other, Blue being given space to…sleep away. Red, as always, was in his usual spot, not…driving the unicorn foward as much as…nudging it in the right direction.

There was a strong silence; not a single word had been uttered since departing from that cave-hearted forest.

“Well,” Novea finally broke the silence, “we helped you”.

“So you did…” Red simply acknowledged.

“That was…greater than expected, than I agreed to, but…if that was truly it, then we are settled” Novea thus stated.

“Yeah…” Red simply murmured; it was clear from his breaths that much was unfolding in his mind. “That’s the thing about…these kind of requests… Their info can be even shittier than even the Guild’s poor excuse for quest vetting” he thus remarked.

“I suppose…” Novea simply acknowledged.

“I’ll be honest…” Red spoke forth, “my whole plan was that I was gonna have you tag along for that job I thought’d be easy and have you see me in action, see what I was capable of, you know, to build to an extended offer…” he…revealed?

Novea eyed; “Oh, so there was more to this than needing our help…” she straightly said… Though, why was Red being so…suddenly forthright? Regardless… “Well, I would have to refuse anyway… It is best if we depart our ways once we reach Pebbleberry. I will provide the rest of your payment, also.”

“Yeah… It was a stupid idea” Red’s breaths admitted; “Ended up stumbling into more shit than I expected, and all you saw was me getting tossed around like a goofy mannequin… Didn’t look like I could handle shit despite once being Diamond and a slayer of dragons…” His eyes glanced behind, looking at Blue; “Worst of all… I put her in great risk again…”

“You two…obviously care about each other…” Novea…simply remarked.

“Yeah… but I keep getting her in these situations, nearly getting her killed…” Red replied, voice…regretful.

“Yet she keeps following you anyway, rightly?” Novea…remarked, recalling.

“Yep… You know, there are hundreds of things wrong with that gal… She does a good job at hiding those sides of her but trust me…once you get to know her, you see it and can’t unsee it…” He sighed, turning his eyes back to the road ahead. “She only joined the Guild because of me, you know, and…since she’s able to actually advance…I’ve ended up relying on her for quests I’m locked out of… But I don’t like doing that, being reliant on her… ”

“Hm” Novea simply acknowledged in mumble… A short silence ensued.

“You know,” Red began to speak again, “used to be just the Guild… That’s all I had after I’d lost everything before… It’s why I’ve tolerated all the shit that’s happened and how I’ve been treated… I wanted to stick with the Guild until the end… Still do…” He glanced at Blue again; “Now I’ve got something else, I guess… But sometimes I wonder if I am doing the same thing with her that I did with the Guild…”

“Oh, I can see that…” Novea coldly remarked.

“Heh… What do you know about me anyway, huh?” Red abruptly asked, voice neutral.

“Not any more than what anyone else knows, if that is what you are wondering… As I said, you were never relevant to anything involving me” Novea frankly replied.

“Well, what do you know?” Red asked again.

Novea sighed; “That you are an ass to everyone; that you are a womanizer who has bedded practically every kind of women; that you are responsible for the extinction of dragons; and that…you single-handedly ended any prospect of the Guild expanding itself overseas to Far East, destroying decades of relations-building, because you slayed a sacred dragon during your venture there” thus she so bluntly answered; “I can go on.”

“Harsh…” Red’s breaths mumbled; “Though, I think you meant blamed for what happened to the dragons and thrown into the waves with what happened in the Far East… I ain’t the one who had those quests on the board or allowed that shady contract to be posted. The Guild fucked up too but threw all the blame on me… Questing is all I ever wanted to do, and that’s all I did… But I am the one who got permanently demoted without any prospect of ever advancing again… I am the who gets treated like shit” His voice was becoming more…angry.

“Of course…” Novea rolled her eyes, unsympathetic.

Red sighed, cooling his temper; “But I admit… I was an idiot riding that high, I know that now; not much’s changed… Sometimes I really do wonder what the fuck I am even thinking…”

“Alrightly, seriously: Why are you telling me all of this?” Novea abruptly interrogated. Indeed, Red had spent this entire journey being as closed as possible, yet now he was being so open… She knew there had to be more to this…

Red hehed; “Good question… I’m just speaking my ass off…”

“No, you aren’t. What do you actually want, Red? Just say it already.” Novea interrogated.

“I’ve already answered that” Red simply replied.

Novea grumbled; “Fine. Let me to rephrase: What do you want from us?”

Red paused, silent, before finally…his mouth opened: “I want in.”

Novea’s head tilted… “Huh?”

“It ain’t obvious? Your Bureau mission: I want in on it” Red specified.

Novea was…taken by surprise, her mind still processing; “What? No… Obviously not?”

“Look, you need transport and protection while you’re in this dump of a dutchy, right? It might’ve not looked like it back there, but I am…we are…the best you’ll get” Red stated; “Not asking for coin either. But if I help you, the Bureau’ll owe me a favor, right?”

“Red, that is not how any of this works; the Bureau does not owe—” Novea, staggered in mind, was trying to reply, but…

“Fine,” Red interrupted, “guess we’ll play it this way: you’re after that Coastfield bastard girl, aren’t you?”

“…” Novea went mute completely, freezing… “How…?” her breaths slipped…

“Ah, so I was right” Red was confirmed. “Lady, not everyone in this dump-continent has their head buried in their own ass. Coastfield spends decades abetting illicit activities of the United Company—including privateering, blockade-running, and illegal smuggling—and finally ended up getting bombarded, everyone important is killed, whole sovereign line is broken, then one month later you Bureau-bugs show up in Sparklewater begging for transport to Huckleberry, which happens to be where that Coastfield bastard ‘allegedly’ is”.

“Duhuh…” Novea…blurtfully acknowledged, bamboozled utterly.

“Guild obviously wants that kid so they can protect their power and their blood-bounded agreements they’d sucked tails for. It wasn’t hard to put together” thus Red finished.

“…” Novea was at a total loss for words… Was this seriously happening? Had their entire mission been comprised by…him? This entire time, he had been sitting there grumbling away, but…he was actually…

“See, Bureau-bug…” thus Red went on, “I might be an idiot, but I pay attention… Turns out, I know a lot of things since I’ve been places, and I used to actually be learned. People talk and remark all the time, even the—”

“Smallest details, I know…obviously, I know…” Novea completed…

“Yep. Secrets so big are hard to keep. It’s how I know the Coastfield gal is even here. You help enough people, you end up learning things you didn’t ask for… Pieces of a puzzle you just have to put together” he stated on.

« Fasçinanter… » Antica mumbled; indeed, she was finding this exchange to be rather…interesting.

Novea…sighed in such defeat; “I cannot…confirm nor deny…” she admitted, implying that he was essentially correct.

“So, here’s the deal: I’ll help you find that Coastfield bastard. I’ll take you to Grandberry and wherever else you need to go. I’ll help the Guild play its power-schemes and politics… But I want you to—” he was stating, but…

“Put in a word for you, speak on your behalf, convince people in the Bureau to help you win over the Citadel, and or make everything…better—I know the game, Red” Novea completed.

“Yeah… If this can give me a slight chance of being able to advance again and quest without the constant bitch treatment…and without needing to rely on her rank… I’ll take it” Red said, his voice more…sincere. “So, do we have a deal?”

Novea…withdrew into her mind, cogitating…

In many surprising respects, Red was…Bureau material… She could see his potential usefulness, and she had the discretion to…make such decisions…

Novea felt a sudden tap on her shoulder; she immediately turned, seeing Antica…nodding her head in approval.

She sighed; “Fine… No promises, but you have me.” thus she acquiesced; “Though, be warned: once you agree to cooperate with the Bureau, there is no easy out. You are either an asset or a liability.”

“Heh… Fine enough” Red replied, now more…relaxed; “But I still want to be paid those golds you promised”.

“Certainly, I won’t back out of that” Novea replied, also more relaxed.

“Goodly heard…” Red’s breaths acknowledged. “Well anyway, since we’d entered from the northwest and Grandberry’s to the centereast on the other end of the Great Forest, we’ll have to go around it; could take a few days…” thus the conversation shifted; “And I know the roads around here; which ones lead to trouble, so which ones to avoid”.

“Hmm…” Novea mumbled… “Actually, first we should stop at a town with a Guild presence to report…what we found in that cave; awareness should spread to the other branches in Huckleberry from there…”

“Ah, and I bet you’ve got a specific town in mind, birdy?” Red frankly remarked.

“Perhaps. But beforehand…”

Antica simply sat there as the two continued going back and forth, Red being inducted into their mission. Though, Novea was being even more vague with him than she had been with her… So, no new details were learned.

Yet with this matter settled, one thing was for certain: the search for Blossom was finally beginning.

And thus, slowly but surely,

Pieces continue to fall together,

As if a web being stitched and weaved…

And with this trajectory set,

It is perhaps time for yet another revisit

Though, for a longer duration…